An innovative soil management impacts white grapes and wines sensory qualities

Production quality in viticulture is highly dependent on soil characteristics and vineyard management. Although grapevine can adapt to many soil types, grape and wine composition could be affected by soil management, which influences the nutrient adsorption of wine root and the taste of final products. In this study, parameters concern soil quality, vine health and sensory quality of grapes and produced wines. We investigared two grape varieties Riesling and Pinot Gris in Alsace (France) with six different innovative vineyards managements consisting in (i) organic systems and (ii) integrated systems. All systems used low pesticides inputs and were highly diverse in terms of Production Designation of Origin (PDO) and age of the vines. Sensory analysis concerned grapes and berries at final stage of maturity, at harvest and corresponding wines for vintages 2014 and 2015. The sensory profiles of the berries were estimated by quantitative descriptive analyses (trained panel) completed with chromametric measurements. The sensory profiles of wines were estimated in a complete way (i) by quantitative descriptive analysis (trained and wine expert panels), (ii) by typicality assessment (wine expert panel), and (iii) by scoring hedonic tests (consumer panel) to characterize the hedonic quality of wines. The results showed that the sensory profile of the wine established by the expert panel is linked to grape quality at harvest. Chromametric measurements were correlated to the expert color ratings in connection with the origin of grapes used to make the wine. Sensory visual and aromatic attributes of wines enabled to distinguish the six sites and both 2014 and 2015 vintages, but not the organic systems from the integrated ones. Finally, drastically reducing herbicides in soil management of the vineyard had minor effects on sensory charachteristics of harvest berries and wines and did not significantly impact consumer preferences of the wines.